Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics

This work presents the first comprehensive and systematic treatment of all relevant issues and topics in contemporary global bioethics. Now that bioethics has entered into a novel global phase, a wider set of issues, problems and principles is emerging against the backdrop of globalization and in the context of global relations. This new stage in bioethics is furthermore promoted through the ethical framework presented in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights adopted in 2005. This Declaration is the first political statement in the field of bioethics that has been adopted unanimously by all Member States of UNESCO. In contrast to other international documents, it formulates a commitment of governments and is part of international law (though not binding as a Convention). It presents a universal framework of ethical principles for the further development of bioethics at a global level. The Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics caters to the need for a comprehensive overview and systematic treatment of all pertinent new topics and issues in the emerging global bioethics debate. It provides descriptions and analysis of a vast range of important new issues from a truly global perspective and with a cross-cultural approach. New issues covered by the Encyclopedia and neglected in more traditional works on bioethics include, but are not limited to, sponsorship of research and education, scientific misconduct and research integrity, exploitation of research participants in resource-poor settings, brain drain and migration of healthcare workers, organ trafficking and transplant tourism, indigenous medicine, biodiversity, commodification of human tissue, benefit sharing, bio industry and food, malnutrition and hunger, human rights and climate change.

Henk ten Have studied medicine and philosophy at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He received his medical degree in 1976 from Leiden University and his philosophy degree in 1983. He worked as a researcher in the Pathology Laboratory, University of Leiden (1976-1977), as a practising physician in the Municipal Health Services, City of Rotterdam (1978-1979) and as a Professor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Limburg, Maastricht (1982-1991). From 1991 he was a Professor of Medical Ethics and the Director of the Department of Ethics, Philosophy and History of Medicine in the University Medical Centre Nijmegen, the Netherlands. In September 2003 he joined UNESCO as Director of the Division of Ethics of Science and Technology. Since July 2010 he is Director of the Center for Healthcare Ethics at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, USA. QUOTE FROM REVIEWER: “There is probably no bioethicist in the world that has the same global insight in bioethics as Henk ten Have, in terms of neglected/important topics, centers of expertise around the world, qualified contributors in other countries and overall management of a project such as this one” (Jos Welie, review report on the proposal for the Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics).  

“The ten Have’s Encyclopaedia represents an enormous advancement with respect to the aggressive, autarchic mainstream bioethics. … it is certainly an ‘Encyclopaedia of a more global bioethics’ than any other bioethical or biomedical-ethical encyclopaedia so far.” (Amir Muzur, Jahr - European Journal of Bioethics, Vol. 7 (14), 2016)